14 DAY TRIAL // Clearly, Shia LaBeouf is putting in a lot of extra hours to prove to the world that he’s more than the handsome, slightly goofy guy from mindless action movies like “Transformers” and “Indiana Jones.”
Soon back on the big screen in a Depression-era drama / Western opposite the hottest actor of the moment Tom Hardy, “Lawless,” Shia is going Method, as he admits in a new interview with USA Today.
In fact, he’s been doing that for quite some time but, so far, few people were paying attention.
He says of his role “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman,” “There’s a way to do an acid trip like Harold & Kumar, and there’s a way to be on acid. What I know of acting, Sean Penn actually strapped up to that (electric) chair in Dead Man Walking. These are the guys that I look up to.”
There’s no way to misunderstand that.
Shia continues speaking against the studio system, which he once accused of sticking “a finger” up his you-know-what in the sense of providing him with an opportunity to forge a career and then set out to mold him to his bosses’ liking.
“All I’m really trying to say in the most politically sensible way is, ‘Thank you so much for giving me the opportunities, I would just like to make movies about people now.’ That’s it,” the actor says, trying to explain (once more) his previous controversial statements.
As for the money he’s already made from blockbusters (all 3 “Transformers” films and the last “Indiana Jones” were panned by critics but fans still paid to see them), LaBeouf would give it back if he was asked to.
“If I could give the money back and get all the credibility in the world that I’m seeking, I would do it tomorrow. In a heartbeat,” he insists.
Dropping acid isn’t the only out of the ordinary thing Shia did to be more convincing in a movie role: for “Lawless,” for instance, he gained about 40 pounds (18.1 kg) to actually look like he could be Tom Hardy’s brother.
Soon enough, as he starts work on a new film, a Lars von Trier production, he will be pushing the envelope even more, having already announced that he won’t be acting out his love scenes, because they will be as real as legally possible.